There is no other way of slicing it, the 2025/26 Premier League campaign turned out to be the best, and most bizarre, one yet for Aston Villa since our Lion remembered it could roar under Unai Emery.
The heady days of once again heading for relegation, this time under Steven ‘The Screech’ Gerrard, were obliterated within a couple of months of Unai’s arrival, and after a very disrupted summer transfer window – as sponsored by ‘The Financial Regulations’ – an incredibly poor start saw us boggle the minds of the media (who seemed to be unable to admit we were even there) by having a very short and unexpected dalliance with the title.
It was never going to last, we all knew that and that outcome would have been the favoured prediction by anyone using betting sites in Switzerland at the time. It certainly was not going to last when the Wicked Witch of the Wibble struck and we lost Youri Tielemans, John McGinn and I like Boubi’s Kamara to lengthy injuries and had our midfield ripped from us.
The press then noticed we had been in the title battle, namely because we predictably could not maintain it, or we had blown it because the pressure got to us – us Villans have become used to injuries not existing unless someone at Manchester City, Liverpool or Manchester United break a toe nail.
We plodded on and rammed any talk of bottling (not Arsenal) down a few throats by finishing back in the Champions League spots again, and lifting a certain UEFA Europa League trophy in the most frightening of fashions…it was comfortable, we were in full control, I can barely remember them posing a threat and we only thought we might lose because we are Villa and we do that and most of the press thought we would.
Not a bad season eh! Bit of a rollercoaster but, that can happen.
We were prepared for absolutely nothing. Roll on this summer and we seem to have deliberately set off our own grenade as the talk of the EL Final being the last chance for our first team group to win something, was not idle talk.
It was, we have now sold Donyell Malen, Youri Tielemans, Morgan Rogers and Lucas Digne, and we can now wave goodbye to Ezri Konsa who has agreed a just over £50 million move to Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal side this week, and we are now just waiting for official confirmation that the deal has gone through as basically everything is agreed and all that was delaying it was (Thursday’s) medical.
If the speculation rumour mill is to be believed we might not be finished there either. There is strong talk that goalkeeper Emi Martinez could still be off given we have signed Zion Suzuki, and Ollie Watkins to Saudi Arabia claims rumble on.
Clearly our hand was forced on a couple of these deals, and there is no denying we have maximised available fees, but it very much feels like Unai may have thought ‘bugger it’ and just decided to complete our inevitable rebuild in one summer and not two, or three, as most of us had expected to begin with.
It is going to be intriguing to see how this works out given the number of new signings we have already made and we are obviously not going to be at our best for a few months – but we were here 12 months ago and we all saw how that worked out.
In Unai we trust, but one way or another we needed a refresh so let’s just enjoy the ride regardless of what happens this year. Bring on the Brighton!
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